


Life is STAR TIME

by ArchLichCovenant



Series: The Purpose of a Belt [1]
Category: Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Wizard, Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-07-18 21:33:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16127174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArchLichCovenant/pseuds/ArchLichCovenant
Summary: After a visit from a mysterious benefactor, Marco embarks on a new path. Will becoming a Rider avert disaster or only bring about further calamity.





	1. Prologue

Marco Diaz is tired. Not only did he spend his “morning” trying to get time running again, but then he had a full day of school afterwards. So upon arriving home he walks straight up to his room and collapses onto his bed, only to bash his head against something that shouldn’t have been there. His first thought was that Janna had left some kind of trap for him, but after throwing his covers off he is greeted by a black and silver treasure chest. He stares at it in confusion for a moment only to be startled by someone speaking. “If you thought today was exhausting, I should warn you that it shall only become more trying from this point forward”

Marco spins around with a jump to see a tall, well dressed man with long black hair standing in his room. The man glances up from the book in his hands to give Marco a sympathetic look. “My apologies for the intrusion Mr. Diaz, but this is the precise moment that I need to be here”

“Who are you? Why are you here? Are you after Star’s wand?” Marco questions at a rapid pace, breaking out in a light sweat, but the tall man simply chuckles.

“I am a Genius, of the old fashioned meaning: a spirit of inspiration. I have no need for the wand, what I have need for is you. A hero in the making, with his most death defying trials on the horizon” He smiles and gestures towards the chest “Like Perseus, the “gods” have deigned to grant you armaments. Succor from the coming threats”

“W-w-what?” Marco just stared confused, looking back and forth between the strange man and the chest on his bed. It couldn’t be real. It’s a trap. Every fiber of his being was railing against believing this man. Just as he steeled himself, ready to voice his doubts and accusations, he watched the man turn to dust and dissipate in the wind. In his stead rested a small ring, silver with a large crown containing a gleaming red gemstone with a silver crescent moon set atop it. He could swear he saw the ring pulsate with energy.

Marco, being the ‘safe kid’, did the reasonable thing. The thing anyone in his position would do: pocketed the ring and hid the chest beneath his bed.


	2. Warlock, Now

To Marco’s credit, he did his best to forget all about the ring, the chest and his encounter with the “genius”. Of course nobody, not even the safe kid, could put something like that completely out of mind. Eventually he tried on the ring, only to tear it off and throw it to the floor after it ignited with a bright light. A day later he attempted to open the chest, but found it impossible. ‘Together’ he thought, and with the ring on his right index finger he touched what he believed was the lock. “Open, Now” the chest said, accompanied what sounded like a stock sound effect for magic.

Surely enough though, it popped open. Within he found a number of other rings with red gemstones but different symbols. A tentacle, a drill, a pair of scissors, a shield, a bowtie and some he couldn’t immediately recognize. There was also a belt buckle, shaped like a fist with a silver outline. Beneath that he found a ring with the same symbol. There was also a chain-like object with clips on the end. The links of the chain resembled the ring slots within the chest. Closing the chest he shoved it back beneath his bed, curiosity sated for now.

Despite himself Marco found himself wearing the belt buckle but thought better of carrying any rings with him for now, lest Janna steal any. After a few days wearing the buckle just seemed natural. Now today he felt particularly energetic and marched into Star’s bedroom “Ready to take out life’s frustrations on some ill-intentioned monsters?” he said as he swung violently at the air, nearly missing Star’s melancholic state.

“This is terrible!” Star wailed “best friends don’t let best-besties have bad birthday days!” She retrieved a issue from her wand, blowing her nose before continuing “and Pony Head is having the worst one ever!”

“Pony Head” Marco said with a slump. It’s not that he hated the floating party princess, he couldn’t bring himself to hate Star’s other bestie, just that she tended to make him miserable. “Yea, I’m outta here” he groaned, turning to leave. 

“Marco.” Star spoke in a strained tone “We have to get her out of that prison!”

Now that piqued his interest, he did always love a good prison break movie. “Ahhh, a Break Out! Why didn’t you say so.” perhaps the day could be fun. “Wait, isn’t Saint. Os…” Star screamed and vanished behind cover at the mention of the reformatory. “Uhhh, we haven’t even left yet.”

“Sorry” Star said exiting her hiding place, only to be interrupted by Marco.

“What is that under your rug!” he exclaimed, pointing to the partially concealed entity that was shaking its legs.

“I have no idea, but I do know one thing. Never, ever step on it”

“Let’s get back to that break out thing” He said touching Star’s shoulder.

“But no one’s ever escaped from there” Worry seeping into her words.

“I’ve seen every prison escape movie made, we only need three things” he began rifling through one of stars drawers “Patience, brains aaand the ever famous, multifaceted bobby pin” he punctuated this with a gesture to the object he had managed to retrieve from the dresser.

“Or we use my dimensional scissors to go straight to her cell and get her the hell out of there!” Star said, snipping the scissors in her hand. Suddenly an idea wormed out of Marco’s subconscious.

“Actually Star. Can I try something first?” Marco was already nervous at the thought. Star for her part tapped the wand against her head a few times, before nodding emphatically. Her earth bestie was up to something, and she just had to see even if Pony Head had to wait a few moments more. “Alright, give me a second” Marco said as fast as he could, dashing out of Star’s room and into his own nearly diving to get what he had hidden beneath his bed. 

When Marco returned to Star’s room he had his hoodie unzipped to reveal his buckle, and was wearing both his moon ring and the chain-like ring holder which was hanging from the left side of his belt. Star looked at him quizzically, turning her head askew like a dog. Despite the anxiety welling up inside of him, Marco did his best to look cool as he retrieved the scissors ring from its slot and placed it on his left index finger. ‘Here it goes’ he thought while audibly gulping. He then smiled and placed the scissors ring against his buckle, thinking of Pony Head.

“Portal, Now” a voice emanating from his belt called out, and for a second red crescent moon marks appeared on Marco’s cheeks. They had faded in an instant, and a swirling red dimensional portal appeared before the two stunned teens. Marco was suspicious of the red portal but Star, after overcoming her initial awe, squealed in excitement.

“ohmygodMarcohowdidyoudothat?” Star jabbered with such speed that it was amazing Marco understood it as well as he did. As such he decided to answer honestly: he shrugged. Star shook with excitement, pumping her wand in both hand in front of her face. “Let’s see if it works” She said, staring at the portal with wide eyes.

“I don’t know, aren’t they supposed to be gree-eep!” Marco was unable to finish his thought before Star grabbed him and dragged him through the portal.

They arrived in a dreary place, surrounded by jagged, bleak cliffs. “Uhh, this isn’t Pony Head’s cell” Marco remarked.

“Well it was a good first attempt” Star replied with only a hint of sarcasm. Suddenly another portal opened nearby and a carriage barreled through, Marco just barely throwing them both out of its path. Following the carriage the pair find it stopped just outside of Saint Olga’s. As a hunchbacked man greets the new arrivals that were delivered by the carriage, lightning strikes overhead revealing a barrier over the school. Star immediately shrieks in fear and ducks back behind the rocks.

“New arrivals, if we could just blend in somehow we could sneak in unnoticed. All we need is a…” Once again Marco is cut off by Star.

“Radiant Shadow Transform!” With a wave of her wand Star’s clothing changes, making her resemble some kind of barbarian princess with an eyepatch. 

“Whoah, do..” begins Marco before deciding to try another ring rather than risk Star’s spell misfiring. Retrieving the ring marked with a bowtie, Marco presses it to his buckle.

“Dress Up, Now” and in an instant Marco is in a lovely dress, and his hair grown out into a large ponytail; the perfect picture of a princess, save the fist buckle in the center of his front bow. 

“Ugh, why couldn't’ you turn me into one of the guards?” he whisper shouts at the ring on his finger, and for a second he actually thought it might respond.

“I don’t know, pink is definitely your colour” Star says playfully, pulling Marco’s glare away from the ring. Carefully they join the group of “wayward” princesses and follow along. Within the school they are greeted by the headmistress, Miss Heinous, a cold older woman dressed in drab colours.

“Every one of you is here for a reason” she addresses the ladies gathered in front of her “Too wild. Too Opinionated. Too...bubbly.” She carries on, her cruel eyes regarding each new student in turn. “As part of a noble lineage you don’t have the luxury of being and individual. So, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll all be fixed. Every last one of you whether you’re from Pixtopia or Mewni” She touches one of Star’s cheek marks, which turns ice blue in response. As Star cowers from the touch, Heinous continues her monologue “And don’t even think of escaping, these are useless” snatching a pair of dimensional scissors from one student “We have a tramofinium crystal in tower three. No rift can sustain itself within our walls, so you may as well cough up those scissors you smuggled in.”

With a groan the gathered princesses surrender their scissors, Star begins to as well “It’s totally hopeless” Marco reaches out to stop her. 

“Once we get Pony Head and disable that crystal thing, those are… could be out ticket out of here” for a moment he had forgotten his new abilities. 

“That concludes our orientation. I’m confident you will all become perfect princesses” Heinous spoke again before walking off. “One way or another”

“Now to get everyone checked in so we can start sucking the individuality out of you!” The hunchback who greeted the arriving princesses states as he begins leading them elsewhere. Struck with an idea Marco prepares his best imitation of a female voice.

“I heard the first one checked in gets her own room” he calls out, causing the girls to rush forward. The hunchback and two guards head after them. Hanging back, Marco and Star begin their efforts to find Pony Head’s room. As they round a corner Star begins speaking.

“This place isn’t what I thought” She barely finished as Marco interrupts her for once with a shush, guiding her into a hiding place behind a large vase as a guard marches by.

“Yeah, breaking Pony Head out of here is going to be a breeze.” Marco responds after the guard passes, and the two dash away continuing their search. “It’s just a high surveillance prissy finishing school!”

“No Marco, it’s worse than I imagined” Star states, the fear clear on her face as she points to a student being given lessons on singing with animals a la Snow White.

“You know the kind of girls who get sent here, they could totally benefit from this.” Marco retorts, pushing Star along. Soon they find themselves sneaking through the dormitory where Marco begins to compliment the luxury of the rooms, much to Star’s chagrin and then it is her turn to push him along. They soon find themselves outside Pony Head’s room, where Marco has to stop Star from simply blowing the door down with magic. “No, we have to do this quietly. Without drawing attention” Marco punctuates his thought by producing the bobby pin from earlier, and in a moment he has the door open. Silently he thanks Janna as Star bolts into the room, jumping about and singing. 

Rushing in after her Marco grabs Star and places a hand over her mouth, shushing her “Do you want to get us caught?”

“Sorry” Star whispers in response “Hey Pony Head. Hey, it’s us. We are here to break you out so we can partay!” She continues in a hushed tone. Pony Head spins around, revealing her proper princess self, scaring Star in the process.

“My deepest apologies, but I must abstain as partying is for the unrefined” Pony Head says, speaking as properly as possible. 

“That’s not the Pony Head I know and love” Star says, her words overflowing with worry. Marco rubs her shoulder reassuringly.

“I got this. Hey Pony Head, it’s earth turd” he calls out while pointing to himself. 

“Such language belongs in the gutters of Golathamor” Pony Head giggles.

“You know, I kinda like her better this way” Marco says before a worried and fearful Star rushes ahead, grabbing and shaking her brainwashed friend violently.

“Snap out of it Pony Head, snap out of it!” she calls out frantically. 

“Would you care for any crumpets?” along with a laugh is Pony Head’s only reply.

“You see Marco! This is what they do to you here.” Star says through strained panic. Marco thinks for a second, going over the rings on his chain but fails to recall any with a symbol related to this.

“Relax, once we disable that crystal thing and get her out of here, she will finally be a benefit to society” He attempts to calm Star, while eyeing various junk on the nearby mantle. He thinks about Hank Innocent in ‘Escape from Jail Island’, but makes the decision to instead continue to try out his rings. He leads them out of the room after checking if the coast was clear. Pony Head begins to politely refuse to escape, even calmly asking for guards while Star shushes her. Unfortunately this does get the attention of a guard as they turn a corner, leading them to run into some kind of tea etiquette class.

“Keep your pinkies at ninety degrees, more tea please” the students chant in unison, to the terror of Star and Marco. Even Pony Head joins the collective voices, repeating the tea related mantra. As the guard catches up the three would-be escapees begin to crawl, hiding behind the many tables in the room. Getting behind the furthest table Star readies her wand.

“So are we gonna blast out way out of this?” She turns to Marco for a response.

“No, that will only increase the heat on us” Marco begins, yet something is telling him to fight. Failing to notice the glimmer of his moon ring, he shakes the thought from his head. “We need some kind of distraction”

“Well they are not getting my individuality” Star says as she begins to stand up and fight.

“That’s it!” Marco says grabbing Star. “It’s not criminal, to be an individual” He chants, jumping up from his cover and tossing a nearby teacup at the pursuing guard. “Come on!” he calls out, repeating his own chant. Soon, the entire room is repeating his words and throwing teacups at the guard. “Let’s go, that should buy us some time” He states as the three of them flee the scene. 

“Teeheehee, he got scalded” Pony Head laughs.

“She’s laughing at an authority figure, I think the real Pony Head is still in there!” Star calls out cheerfully. Soon, however they find themselves pursued by a crowd of guards as the school goes into lockdown. Escaping the guards, they manage to return to Pony Head’s room with enough time to fashion a decoy before continuing onward. Soon they arrive in a strange ritual chamber, with serpent headed pillars and a painting of several frightening monsters. The entire place sends shivers up Marco and Star’s spines. 

“What is this place?” Marco wonders, his voice echoing.

“I don’t know” is all Star manages in response before they hear the barking of guard dogs.

“We gotta move” Marco says pushing the princesses ahead, closely pursued by Heinous herself and a cerberus she has leashed. At the end of the hall Marco spots a laundry chute “There, I’ll meet you at the bottom” he says opening the hatch, allowing Star and Pony Head to dive in first. 

“~Stand and fight” A feminine whisper glides through Marco’s mind. He looks around for a second confused, before attempting to dive into the chute himself. “~Defend the one whom you are bound to” the voice tries again. Marco panics and slips into the chute, his dress too large causing him to get stuck. He hears Star calling from below, but is soon nabbed by their pursuers. 

Soon he finds himself strapped to a chair in the solitary confinement chamber and, after failing to pick the restraint's locks with the bobby pin using his mouth, has a princess cap placed on his head which holds his eyes open forcing him to watch the mind control projection before him. A moment later the device is switched to full power, Marco using all his fortitude to resist the mental conditioning. Still it is only a short while before he begins growing weary, only to be greeted by the voice once more “~While discretion is the better part of valor, surely you know when it is time to fight back?” ‘Who are you’ Marco thought to himself. “~Your Phantom, technically speaking”

“What?”Marco somehow managed to speak

“~Sorry, but I’m not here to explain this to you. Honestly I should just let you break so I can be free, especially since you seem so wary of using my power. But, I can feel that you honestly want to fulfill your end of all of this. So this one time I’ll be merciful and help you out” and with that a red light envelops Marco, and when it fades he finds himself freed from his confines. Outside the room he can just barely hear Heinous shouting something. With a deep breath Marco touches the moon ring to his buckle and… nothing.

“No! Come on, come one!” He taps the ring repeatedly and still: nothing.

“~ugh” he hears in his head, and suddenly the ring that matches his belt appears on his left index finger. Realizing his simple mistake, Marco slaps his forehead before using the fist ring.

“Driver On” and with that the buckle extends into a large silver belt around his waist. Eyeing a slider of some kind, he pushes it across his belt causing his fist buckle to unfurl revealing a palm with an eye in the center. Marco stands up straight and grins wickedly before trying the moon ring again.

“WARLOCK, NOW!” The belt bellows, and Marco’s red moon cheek marks return but do not fade. Instead they brighten in intensity as a complex sigil appears beneath his feet. As the sigil rises Marco begins to change. His shins and feet are covered in silver armour, with spines protruding from the forelegs. The rest of his legs are covered in a black undersuit. His torso is enveloped in a crimson long coat with three buckles across his chest and a high collar. His forearms and hands also grow silver armour and spines. His head is black with a silver mouthplate and large sideways red crescent visor, the points extending up and back to the degree that they resemble horns.

Marco begins a confident stride towards the glass separating him from Heinous, but immediately trips. As he returns to his feet, he notices that he has grown in height resembling an adult. He makes a mental note, hoping that this 6’4” height is what he will eventually grow into. Once more he makes his way towards the pane of glass, and with a mighty leap shatters straight through. He glances towards Heinous, striking fear into her heart and revealing her club cheek marks. He turns to the side and obliterates the machine with a single swift blow. 

“Woah” both Star and Pony Head call out in awe. Turning to face them, Marco gives Heinous one more glance over his shoulder before jumping down. Returning the slider to its original position on his belt, Marco returns to his normal state. He nearly falls over, only to be caught by Star. Her and Pony Head begin carrying Marco away, still wearing his pink dress. 

“Glad you back to normal by the way” Says Marco to Pony Head.

“Aww, you too. Now I can make fun of your ugly dress” And with her response Marco has only one thought: figures. As they make their way down the hallway they are greeted by chants of “It’s not criminal, to be an individual”

“Man I can’t believe it but you sure worked some turd magic on these girls. They are in it!”

“Yeah, you really started something”

“My work here is not done” Marco says, standing under his own power again. “My fellow wayward sisters…” and soon he is leading an army of princesses out of the school and towards the crystal tower. Once in the courtyard a battle breaks out between the princesses and guards. 

“Raspberry Panzerfaust!” Star fires a magical rocket, destroying the crystal and toppling the tower it occupied. Evading the falling structure Star opens a portal and while Pony Head elects to stay behind and party, Marco and Star head home. Back in Star’s room, Marco’s dress up spell finally expires returning him to his favourite red hoodie. Returning to his own room, he is unfortunately greeted by an unwelcome sight.

“Nice belt buckle, Diaz. So what’s with this treasure chest?”


	3. Jeweler's Delight

A sea of indigo grass ebbs and flows under a light breeze. Marco stands in his warlock form, performing karate katas under the watchful gaze of both Janna and Star. “Woah” they both gasped in unison watching Marco shatter a blue wooded tree with a single swift blow. He liked the attention, to a degree, and wondered if Jackie would be similarly awed by his new power. He had planned to further test his powers alone, but he couldn’t get Janna to leave yesterday without promising to show her. Then Star was full of questions of her own this morning and thus his training had an audience today.

“Big, Now” is belt announced as he tried a new ring, his fist expanding to humongous size as he struck through a magic sigil. His massive fist obliterated a line of trees before him. He could hear the girls “oohing” and “awing”, and could feel his confidence making leaps and bounds. He readied another ring, and then hesitated. He looked at the ring with a tentacle symbol, fear and doubt seeping through as memories of monster arm took over. He returned the ring to its holster and nabbed another, one that resembled a hole with lines going through it. “Fall, Now” suddenly the ground beneath Marco vanished and before he could react, found himself flat on his back in a deep hole. 

Marco releases a groan as his transformation cancels. “Smooth move Diaz, you alive down there?” Janna calls over the hole’s edge. Replying with another groan Macro begins scaling his way out of the hole. Rolling over the edge to lay in the grass, Marco stares off into the sky for a few moments. Star and Janna lean over him “You okay man?” Janna says, eyeing Marco warily.

“Yea, just really hungry” Marco replies, slowly sitting upright “How’s Emilio's Pizza sound?” The girls look at one another, then nod.

“Sure, let’s go!” Star cheers, already beginning to open a dimensional portal with her scissors. Soon the three are sitting in a booth at the pizza parlor, Janna and Star looking on as Marco devours his pizza. 

“Man magic sure makes you hungry, right Star?” Marco looks at the princess for confirmation.

“Not like this, maybe your magic is fueled by calories?” Star replies sheepishly. Marco thinks about this for a second.

“I know, let me try asking the phantom” Marco respond, attempting to reach out to the voice whose power he wields. Yet he gets no response.

“The what?” Janna asks, a little too excitedly.

“Uh, I’m not one hundred percent sure. Like I can feel that it’s a part of me, and it talked to me before but I don’t know what it actually is. The only reason I know it’s a ‘phantom’ is because it told me”

“Hmm, I wonder if I could make it talk” Star wondered aloud, biting on her wand as she thought. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea Star” Marco shot a worried glance a his friend.

“I KNOW!” Janna interjected “What if I help you meditate? Maybe the phantom is deep inside you and you need to go there to talk to it!”

“That… that actually seems like a sound plan, Janna.” Marco said, partially surprised.

“What? I do know non-dark magic. Come on, let’s do this.” And with that the three of them headed to Janna’s house. Once in her room, Janna began gathering incense, crystals and various other meditative aids. After getting Marco settled and adorned with various ritual components (wrestling him out of his hoodie and shirt in the process) she lit the incense and sat across from him alongside Star.

“Why is this taking so long?” Star asked after barely a minute has passed.

“Meditation requires some patience Star, right Marco? Marco?” Janna tried to elicit a response from him, but his mind had already escaped.

\-------------  
“I don’t think it’s working, Janna” Marco said, the echo of his own voice startling himself and snapping his eyes open. He was in a fog shrouded Echo Creek. “Whoa, it’s like Silent Hill” Marco remarked to himself.

“~This is your Underworld, your subconscious” A familiar feminine voice boomed, coming from seemingly every direction.

“Where are you?” Marco called out.

“~Up here” The voice felt piercing. Glancing up, Marco’s jaw hung slack. He couldn’t believe what he saw: The Blood Moon.

\-------------  
Star was panicking. Despite Janna’s reassurances, she was worried about Marco’s unresponsive state. So she did the one thing she could, and called Glossaryck. “What’s wrong with him? What’s going on? Why won’t he respond?” Star’s words were coming a mile a minute. Glossaryck rubbed his chin for a moment while looking Marco over.

“Pudding cup first” He said. Star had anticipated this and shoved one into his hands immediately. “Excellent” he responded as he started eating the pudding “So he’ll be fine in a bit. It’s just a mix of foreign magic and something else. Nothing to worry about.”

“What do you mean foreign magic? And what’s the something else?” Star nearly screamed.

“I mean it’s magic from far beyond these borders” he gestured around vaguely “and the something is between you and the boy. Thanks for the pudding by the way” and in an instant he vanished. Star began to nervously bite her nails, wondering what he meant by something between her and Marco.

\-------------  
“I… don’t understand” Marco said attempting to sound defiant.

“~It’s simple really. You don’t naturally have magic, instead you power comes from me; a manifestation of the bond between you and Star.”

“But what does that mean!?”

“~You know exactly what it means. I live in your subconscious, I know you know”

“That’s stupid. I mean…”

“~You’re the one who danced with her under my light”

“I was just trying to keep her away from Tom”

“~And why did you do that? And why did that involve dancing with her”

“But I like Jackie”

“~Do you now? My judgement is never wrong”

“So what? I’m fated to be with Star?”

“~No. This has nothing to do with fate. You made a decision, consciously or not. You danced with Star because you wanted to, not because you had to. This is your doing, I merely blessed your action.”

“This is…”

“~ Ugh. I’m tired of hearing you whine like a broken record. We’ll speak again when you come to terms with your true feelings.”

\-------------  
Marco returns to consciousness, groaning and rubbing his head. “See? I told you he would be fine” Janna’s words sound clouded. He looks up to see a worried Star run over to his side and in an instant every part of his being hitches for a moment.

“~Told you” he hears the Blood Moon whisper in his head.

“Are you all right?” Star asks, grabbing him.

“Yeah… yeah.” He trails off, his heart beating heavily. “I think I want to go home” Star nods in response. For their entire walk home the words of his phantom echoed in his mind. Star asked him a million questions about what happened, but he only half replied to most. While this caused her to worry more, she decided to let it rest. Once home, Marco collapsed into a depressive heap on his bed. His mind was at war, unwilling to accept what he learned within himself.


	4. Point of Contention

It has been a week or so since is impromptu meeting with the Blood Moon, and Marco was questioning its judgement more than ever. Just this morning Star had nearly gotten them both killed for a sandwich! Maybe things would have gone smoother if he transformed but more and more it felt wrong. Well, felt wrong to his conscious mind. Within himself each transformation made him feel more and more comfortable and confident. Which only aggravated his staunch denial of his powers. It’s like his life was turned upside down again, for the umpteenth time.

“Star..” Marco sighed to himself. Maybe he was being harsh, questioning their friendship like that. He did mess up too, since he didn’t use his powers. His thoughts eventually bringing him around, and just as he resolved to go talk to her…

He was unconscious.

\-------------  
“Marco, I’m sorry.” Star says apologetically as she knocks on Marco’s bedroom door. “I was a jerk, it’s just I really wanted you to try this sandwich. It’s kinda smashed and dirty, but it’s still delicious!” she continues, her speech returning to its typical energetic nature. That is when his door swung open softly, revealing a dark and empty room. “Marco? Hm, no Marco.” Running to the stairs, Star leans over the edge to look into the living room “Mister and misses Diaz? Uh, what are you guys doing?”

“Oh Star, we were just looking at Raphael's book of old medical illustrations” Mrs.Diaz responded, exiting their hiding place beneath a blanket on the couch. 

“Weird.” Star remarked “Hey, have you guys seen Marco?’

“I think he went to walk the lazer puppies” Angie responded

“Try calling his cellular phone” Raphael adds from under the blanket.

“Oh yeah, good idea!” Star replied as she lowered herself further down to use the landline. Dialing Marco, she can hear his ringtone coming from upstairs “the call is coming from inside the house” Star gasped. Phone still in hand she pulls herself back up an runs into Marco’s room. “There you are. What’s with everyone hanging out in the dark like a bunch of weirdy weirds...” Star comments at a figure in a red hoodie, only to be taken aback when it began to float upwards. “Uh, Marco? Where did you put your legs?” The figure turns around revealing themselves to be some manner of monstrous fly. “What did you do with Marco?”

“If you ever want to see the boy alive again, bring your wand to Ludo’s castle tonight. And come alone” the monster growled before casting off the hoodie and flying out the nearby window.

\-------------  
Toffee sits at a long table, observing Marco’s failure to escape the bonds restraining him to a chair within a large translucent box. “Well it looks like I’ve had all the fun I can have in here” Marco remarks before grabbing a nearby stool with his legs and spinning “No, now I’m done”. Staring down Toffee he asks “Well you got me here what do you want?”

“What...” Toffee begins calmly before being interrupted by the fly monster

“Tell him what you’re gonna do to him, wait till you hear this!” The creature taunts Marco

“Um, do you mind” Toffee responds, shaking the fly from its perch on his chair. As the fly buzzes away, Toffee stands from his seat and carefully hangs up his suit jacket.

“If you’re after the wand, it’s harder to get than you think” Marco starts “lots of people have tried.”

“Eat something, could be your last meal” Toffee says politely as he enters Marco’s “cell” to deliver a sandwich.

“Actually I’m totally full. But if you’re hungry I’m a great cook, so why don’t you let me outta this chair and I’ll give you a taste” Marco threatens, putting violent emphasis on the last word.

“Okay” Toffee replies, releasing Marco’s bonds. In an instant Marco is across his cell and strikes at Toffee, only to bust his hand on the wall of his cell. 

“Wait, there’s two of you?” Marco questions, failing to notice his rage induced mistake.

“Your really should eat” Toffee remarks as calm as ever, throwing Marco back into his seat using his tail. 

“I don’t want your stinking sandwich” Marco screams, slapping the meal off its plate

“You’re a disappointment” Toffee snidely remarks, sealing the cell behind him. 

“Well you’re boring, and you’re dressed like a lawyer” Marco rebukes “At least that guy came dressed for a good time” he continued, pointing at an antler-ed monster who strikes at Marco’s cell in anger. “I feel your pain” Marco responds to the monster, who is clutching their now damaged hand.

“~He’s right you know. You ARE a disappointment” A familiar voice rings through Marco’s head.

“Not now” He silently replies

“~You’re the one who keeps denying their own power because they can’t deal with emotions.” The Blood Moon phantom chides Marco “~Even now, you’re trapped in this cell because of nothing but your own fear. You wouldn’t even have been left vulnerable enough to capture if you would accept me.” Marco groaned to himself, anger beginning to stew “~But hey, don’t worry. I’m sure if you let this situation play out, your problem will solve itself”

“What?” Marco says, surprised

“~Well Toffee here certainly ain’t Ludo. Chances are, if he has his way, you won’t have a princess to love and protect after this” Marco’s heart sank. Despite the potentially life-threatening circumstances he and Star would so often find themselves in, it was never like this. They were never like him. Marco gulped audibly, fear causing his body to shake. Reaching into his pocket, he produced the Driver On ring. He stared at it for a moment before his phantom spoke again “~Don’t bother, your magic won’t work if you can’t command me.” Panicking, Marco attempted to use the ring but to no avail. His buckle simply produced the kind of sound you would hear when someone gets a question wrong on a game show.

“No, no...nononononono!” Marco cried trying his ring again and again. Soon he had given up and slumped against the wall of his cell. 

\-------------  
“We go in at the count of one” Star sternly stated at Ludo an Buff Frog, her temporary allies.

“That is not good plan” Buff Frog attempted to reason with the princess, but it was too late. 

“One” Star said, spinning her wan and charging forward. Launching herself through a cloud of magic smoke she landed on Toffee’s dinner table.

“You made it” he calmly greeted her, only to receive a magical blast that removed his left arm. Star blasted the monsters guarding Marco, turning them into small, cute caricatures of themselves.

“Super Sonic Leech Bomb!” Star casts, attempting to breach Marco’s cell but to no avail. “What?” caught off-guard by this, she is ambushed by another monster. Who in turn is tackled off of her by Buff Frog.

“Hey Buff Frog” the monster welcomes his former comrade, only to be struck unconscious by Star’s new ally. Just then the caricatured monsters return wielding a chainsaw but are easily stopped by Star and Buff Frog. Marco, having been jostled back to awareness by Star’s first attempt to free him, stared on with confusion. Buff Frog and Star simply shrugged in response, hardly alleviating his worries. Evading several newly arrived monsters, Star launches herself up to the chandelier, and while up there she uses her wand to fire a rocket in another attempt to free Marco. Once again she is met with failure. 

Jumping down from her perch she slowly approaches Marco’s cell. As the present monsters begin to surround her, she simply states “No” and conjures a field of blue and pink smokey energy to ward them off. Igniting her cheek marks and focusing her magic, she charges a powerful blast. Looking on Marco fails to notice his cheek marks have appeared and lit up in response. With incredible destructive force Star unleashes an immense blast of magical energy, finally destroying Marco’s cell. “Marco!” Star calls out after her magic induced daze subsides. Rushing over to the destroyed cell Star bumps into Marco, sending him sprawling “Sorry, I was just excited. Let’s get you outta here.” She takes his hand, but the cell regenerates around Marco, nearly trapping his arm in the process. “Oh no” She is suddenly grabbed by one of the monsters.

“Stop” Toffee commands the brutish monster “That’s no way to treat our guest of honour.” He calmly states, regenerating his arm. Star is released from the monster’s grasp. Retrieving a remote, Toffee presses a red button causing the top of Marco’s cell to steadily lower. In a panic, Marco and Star try in vain to prevent the prison from crushing Marco. 

“No no no no, stop stop stop” Star cries. Readying another blast, Star is interrupted by Toffee.

“That’s not going to work again. That crystal is twice as strong now.” Toffee says, returning to his seat. 

“Don’t worry Star, I think I got it” Marco says, struggling.

“~Yeah, right” 

“Not right now” Marco responds to the voice in his head through gritted teeth. Leaping onto Toffee’s table, Star drops her wand onto his plate.

“Fine, take it” She says “Now let Marco go”. Marco looks on, more afraid than ever. Ludo leaps onto the table cheering, only to be nabbed by a monstrous chicken. 

“Do you think I’m like Ludo?” Toffee regards Star, before turning his attention to the chicken monster “just swallow it” and so the chicken monster swallows Ludo whole. Pushing the wand towards Star, Toffee replies “I don’t want your wand. Destroy it”

“What!?” Both Star and Marco call out.

“Surprise!” Toffee calls out, his calm veneer leaving him for a moment.

“I can’t. I don’t even know how” Star responds.

“Yes you do, it’s the first spell your mother taught you” Toffee explains.

“The whispering spell”

“Exactly, Marco’s waiting”

“~waiting…” Marco hears in his head, the cell nearly crushing him.

“Star…” Marco calls out. With a dour look upon her face, Star grabs her wand

“Sorry…” She apologizes to no one in particular as she readies the spell. Marco’s own guilt felt more crushing than than his cell in this one moment. He felt as if his phantom was attempting to claw its way out of him. He couldn't let her do this, not for him. He was supposed to protect her. It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

“~Then how was it supposed to go?”

“Star…” Marco lets out one last sigh.

“DRIVER ON! WARLOCK, NOW! Fall, Now!”

All attention was on the crystalline cell once again, or where it was at least. Now in its place was a massive hole. Toffee especially regarded this occurrence with both confusion and concern. Leaping from the void, Marco as Warlock landed along the edge of where his prison once sat. 

“I told you I got it” Marco calls out to Star cockily.

“MARCO!” Star shouted, tears falling from her eyes.

“Sorry it took me so long, but don’t worry I’ll never leave you hanging like this again” Marco called out before turning his attention to Toffee “You and I though, we still got a score to settle!” He challenged the lizard man before charging. Toffee was rather nonplussed, simply regarding the interruption with a raised eyebrow and a sigh. 

With a swift right hook Marco struck at his opponent, only to find himself blocked. Toffee pushed back his seat and rose to his feet while Marco took a step back to size up his opponent. Next he went in for a karate chop with his left, only to find himself blocked once again. 

“Admirable, but foolish.” Toffee yawned, before striking Marco in the gut sending him flying back. Jumping back to his feet Marco charged in again, attempting to take out his foe with a furious flurry of punches and kicks only to find himself matched by Toffee. “Are you done?” the monster asked, blocking every one of Marco’s strikes.

“No way, I’m just getting started” Marco feigned right, reeling back for a haymaker, only to instead strike with a left straight. Marco’s fist went clean through Toffee. Pulling back, Marco stared at his fist for a moment before looking back at his enemy. Toffee simply sighed again.

“You ruined my favourite shirt” he stated as his chest began to regenerate.

“I’m going to ruin more than that!” Marco retorted, reaching for another ring. He looked at the ring he pulled from its holster and ice ran through his veins; it was the tentacle ring. After an instant he swallowed his fear and placed it on his left hand before running it in front of his buckle.

“Tentacle, Now!” His belt announced, and the armour covering his right forearm and hand cracked and shattered revealing an old friend.

“Monster arm…” Star quietly said to herself, fear creeping in on her at the sight as well. Toffee looked on quizzically. Steeling himself, Marco readied his arm to strike.

“It’s good to be back!” His arm roared “Now, let’s slaughter this fool!” Marco jumped back in shock, but recovered quickly.

“For once, I think I agree with you” he responded to his arm’s outburst. Dashing in again Marco struck at Toffee. Once again Toffee attempted to block, only for is arm to give way to the tentacles power.

“Grahhh!” Toffee screamed for an instant before regaining his composure. ‘Too much trouble’ he thought to himself and began to back away”

“Oh no you don’t!” Marco and his arm threatened in unison, Marco retrieving another ring.

“Big, Now!” Monster Arm struck through the conjured sigil, enlarging rapidly. Barely fitting in the room, Monster Arm slammed Toffee against the wall before pulling him in closer. Readying another ring Marco prepared to deliver the final blow.

“Fist Strike, Now!” The belt called out as Marco ran a ring marked with a comic book-esque impact symbol along the buckle. The now regular sized Monster Arm coiled back like a spring, gathering energy. Behind them an illusory Blood Moon appeared, inspiring awe and confusion in Star as she looked on. Like Marco’s did for her earlier spell, Star’s cheek marks responded to the energy and lit up. Toffee’s eyes went wide as he recovered from the tentacle’s previous attack. Then, Monster Arm uncoiled and shot forward rapidly followed by the illusory moon. Feeling the impact Toffee fell to his knees, despite having no outward signs of damage. In burst of crimson energy, Toffee exploded. 

Marco’s transformation cancelled itself, and thankfully took Monster Arm with it. Panting, Marco fell onto one knee. Star, shaking off any questions related to the Blood Moon, ran over to Marco’s side still teary eyed. A group of monsters gathered round, then shot glances at Buff Frog who motioned for them all to stand down. “Told you” Marco began, panting heavily “I had it…” he leaned on the shoulders of Star, who hugged him tightly. Slowly the two began to exit the castle on foot. Marco looked at Star with a soft smile “Sorry about everything”

“No, I was being stubborn”

“But still, when the cards were down you had my back. You were willing to sacrifice your wand to save me”

“Of course” She smiled brightly “You’re my best-bestie! That’s more important than any silly wand” She gesticulated with the wand as she spoke.

“Uhh, Star? Your wand.” Star looked at the wand in her hand. It had changed: the wings had expanded out, the blue area behind the crystal star had gone from blue to red, the handle had become more complex. For a second she could have sworn she saw the same eye as on Marco’s buckle in the crystal star. 

“Whoah” Was all she said, doing her best Bill & Ted impression (not that she knew what that was). Both were staring at the wand so intently they had not noticed that they had exited the castle. In a moment they were beset upon by a group of knights, one running up and hugging Marco.

“Oh Marco my boy! I am so happy to see you!” Marco strained in the knights grip

“Uh, do I know you?”

“Marco it is me, your dad!” Raphael replied, lifting his helmets visor. 

“My dad!” Marco cheered. The nearby mounted knight threw off her helmet, revealing Angie beneath.

“Ooh, My turn!” She called out while attempting, and failing, to dismount the horse. “Just come here and hug your mother” She said hanging upside down from the horse. 

“Wait, how did you guys get here?” Star asked

“They used your mirror” a stern voiced knight called out before lifting their visor to reveal River, Star’s father.

\-------------  
“So basically” River said with a whistle “ just to recap…”

“You’re not going to do that thing, are you? Queen Moon asked from her throne beside him.

“Do what, my dear? River asked, innocently.

“You know that thing when you talk and every time that you get to a word with and "S" you have that little whistle in your front teeth? I love you honey, I just can’t deal with that today.” with that she turns to speak with her daughter “Star, you have abused your magic, frightened Mr & Mrs Diaz, nearly gotten Marco killed, and had something done to your wand. Did I leave anything out?”

“Uhhh, well there’s a bunch of...oof” Marco nudges Star before she is herself an even deeper hole “No, I think that’s everything. But look! The wand’s fine! I think” Star holds out her wand for her mother to inspect. 

“It’s uh, I’ll take it and get it cleaned for you” Moon replies, taking the wand. 

“Please don’t be mad, that looks like a mad face…” Star bean before her mother suddenly embraces her. “So you’re not mad?”

“Oh, I’m always mad. I’m just glad your safe.” After a moment longer Moon allows her daughter to run along with the Diaz’s back to earth. “I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, River” she turns to her husband.

“Darling..” He says grabbing her shoulder before she walks off and activates the castle mirror. 

“Glossaryck? Hello?” She calls out, the mirror looking out into Star’s bedroom on earth.

“Stop yelling, I was in the tub… my lady” The blue entity leans into view wearing a shower cap. 

“Ah, we can call back” The queen responds apprehensively. 

“No, it’s fine I’m just doing a little gardening” He says in response, floating while shaving his legs with a pink razor. “So what’s this about?”

“I wanted to ask you about this” Moon holds up Star’s wand to the mirror.

“Oh wow, didn’t think the kid had it in him.” Glossaryck comments with a chuckle

“Excuse me?” Both Moon and River say in unison.

“Ah, you know how it goes” the genie like man says, waggling his eyebrows “Nothing to be done about it” 

“Glossaryck, explain!” Moon admonished the being, who seemingly didn’t care. Yawning, he raises his arms, causing his bath towel to fall.

“Oops” he says as Moon covers her eyes.

“Glossaryck, towel please” the king demands.

“Towel, Now” he responds, conjuring a towel around himself. “No problem your highness.” He shoots the two a sly grin “Oh dear, receptions cutting off” he states plainly, visibly reaching out and deactivating the mirror. Moon and River look at each other worried.


	5. New Wand, New World

“Guess who?” Star said cheerily into her laptop’s webcam, wiping the steam from its lens “It’s me, Star! I have some exciting news for you. Well first, Marco got kidnapped, and I blew up a bunch of stuff and I thought I was going to have to blow up my wand too. An I was super bummed because I thought I was never going to be able to do magic again, but then Marco got his mojo back and saved the day with his magic! It was so cool!” She reaches into a nearby drawer and grabs a hair brush “And then, look at this!” Noticing her mistake she tosses the brush and produces her wand “Somehow my wand got upgraded! I think it’s because of Marco’s magic but whenever I ask he gets all… Hey! Say hi Marco!” She calls out while turning the webcam towards Marco wearing only a towel. 

“Hey!” He rushes over and closes the laptop “ I don’t want the computer to watch me shower” he shoots Star a disapproving look for a moment before her wand reacts violently, flying out and smashing its way through the hallway. Chasing after it Marco calls out “What’s up with your wand?”

“I don’t know!” She responds as they chase after it. After Star just barely moves out of the way, the wand flies into her room and is snatched up by her spellbook. The book then launches itself across her room, crashing into and dragging the pursuing Marco into her closet leaving his towel behind. “Hang on I’ll get you out.” Star calls out moving to open the closet.

“Whoa, whoa. Wait a second, I’m not decent” Marco cries out. Wrapping himself in various articles of clothing he attempts to open the door, only to find it locked. “Uh, it’s locked”

“What?” Star begins her attempt to force the door open.

“Try the knob”

“What do you think I’m doing?” She replies, irked. A laser puppy hops into the room, only to be pushed away by Star “Not now sweetie. I usually open this door with my wand.”

“Well your book ate it” Marco responds, pointing at the book.

“Better not be pokin’ around in there, that’s my secrets closet. It’s private” She threatens.

“Just get me out of here!” Marco pleads. Neither notice the small blue man slip out through the keyhole.

“What are you doing?” Glossaryck asks

“AHH!” Star screams, startled by his sudden appearance “Uh, hey Glossaryck. My wand’s locked in the closet”

“What about me!” Marco adds

“Oh yeah. Marco’s in there too. And my spell book. Basically all my stuff. I want my stuff”

“Did you try the knob?” Glossaryck gestures toward the door.

“I tried the knob” She says angrily as she retrieves a large sword from her room and begins swinging wildly at the door, frightening Marco on the other side. “Anything?” 

Glossaryck slides back through the keyhole and bangs on the knob “Nope, still locked”

“Aha!” Marco nabs Glossaryck by the head “Is this some kind of training thing or something?” he questions the magic man.

“Are you some kind of training thing? Are you mad? Is this wolf-babob rock bandage ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba..” Glossaryck responds, doing his best Charles Manson impression.

“Stop, stop, stop it” Marco says, shaking him “Just tell me how to get out of here, or better yet just bring me my buckle and scissor ring” 

“Okay, I’ll tell you. Are you listening?”

“Yes” Marco sighs “I’m listening”

“To reach the chunks in the hobo stew, find her secret. That's the clue.”

“So if I find her secret, the door’s just going to magically open?”

“Goodbye” Glossaryck says as he slips back through the keyhole.

“Secret” Marco whispers to himself “Which one?” He says, looking out on a mountainous pile of potential secrets. “Here we go”

\-------------  
Floating around in circles as Star continues her attempt to sword the door open, he interjects “Why don't you try the easy way and open the door with magic?”

“I can’t do magic, my wand’s in the closet” She responds.

Gasping, Glossaryck asks “Do you wanna try the hard way?” His pupils overtaking his eyes.

“Yeah” Star replies, her pupils likewise expanding “What’s the hard way?”

“You’ve never heard of the hard way?” Glossaryck says surprised, his eyes having returned to normal.

“Nope, sounds hard though”

“Oh it is. But I can teach you”

“Teach Me” Star begins to grin madly.

“The lesson begins inside my eyeball” Glossaryck informs her as he holds his eye open wide.

\-------------  
“I am really wishing I had my buckle right about now.” Marco calls out annoyed. Of all the times to get trapped, coming out of the shower was a rough one. He didn’t even have boxers for christ’s sake! Continuing to rummage through Star’s “secrets”, Marco can’t help but wonder what it could be. What was she keeping from him that was so special.

“~Whatever could it be?” as soon as he heard her speak, Marco groaned.

“You really like to pipe up at the most annoying times, don’t you?” He asked, but was me only with silence. With a huff he pulls at a nearby stack of junk, causing it to topple over onto him. “Ow!”

“Ah, Marco my boy. How’s it going over there?” Glossaryck calls out. Marco climbs out from the junk, heaving a colourful pinata towards the genie in the process.

“Oh, you know, just trying to find her "secret" in a closet full of secrets!” He responds, popping out from the junk pile. 

“Yes, well, you know I do this because I love you.” Glossaryck replies, standing in the spellbook in front of the wand.

“Okay, that’s a little weird” 

“Ha ha. I'm sure it is. Now if you don't mind” he says, gesturing to the wand “I've got work to do.” The book slams shut onto him.

“Yeah, so do I” Marco responds, defeatedly. He opens a small treasure box, finding a deformed narwhal-like creature within. 

“Help...me…” the creature wheezes, frightening Marco who drops the container back into the pile. Continuing through the closet Marco passes a number of strange objects including a photo of Tom, a burning rainbow, and a something sealed in a crystal.

“What a mess” he comments, looking over his surroundings “It’s time to get organised” an using potted hand-plants to hold signs, he begins to make two piles: one labelled “no secrets” and one labelled “secrets?”. Rummaging through the closet he tosses what appears to be a beehive onto the no secrets pile with a call of “Nope!” doing the same for a magical toaster and all manner of other junk. In fact, everything he finds winds up in the no secrets pile.

He was beginning to feel disheartened. ‘Maybe there was some kind of trick? Like, the secret is that there is no secret?’ he thought to himself. No that can’t be it. Besides, Star was… well, Star. Boisterous and loud, he wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out she didn’t have any secrets. Unlike him, who had begun to keep many things from Star. He sighed loudly “What am I doing?” he asked of no one in particular. He knew he cared deeply for Star, irregardless of her often reckless behaviour. But he could never tell her that, or tell Star about his powers, or why their magics responded to each other, or why her wand changed the way it did. He feared how she would react, he was all but certain that she didn’t feel for him like the Blood Moon says he does for her.

He slapped himself. “Why am I just sitting around, trapped in Star’s closet, feeling sorry for myself. I’m better than this! I can find my way out!” He cheered, but his newfound enthusiasm lasted only a moment. A massive crash, likely from Star’s efforts to get him out, caused the separated piles to topple over onto him.

“Well, Marco, looks like I'm just a skimmer. Skimmin' the surface of the hobo gravy. The watery hobo gravy. How are things goin' for you?” Star speaks quietly, lying on other side of the door.

“Not so good, you actually thwarted my progress” Marco says as he extricates himself from the once again mixed secrets and not secrets. Star sighs.

“I guess it's not that bad. I can slide sandwiches under the door. Bring you your homework. Life could be good for you.” She says, attempting to cobble together a silver lining. 

“I don't wanna live in your secrets closet!” Marco jeers, the spellbook beneath him beginning to glow. “Whoa!” He lifts it up before dropping it back to the ground where it pops open revealing Glossaryck and the wand “Alright. No more riddles, little man.” Marco grabs Glossaryck “Tell me what I'm supposed to be looking for!” He jabs the little man with a finger, causing Glossaryck to emit a bright light from his eyes “Ow. My eyes!” Marco flails around before falling, knocking a book down from a nearby shelf. Looking over the book carefully Marco yells “Oh! So this is the thing.”

“Bingo!” Glossaryck replies from Marco’s hand

“Star I found the thing” Marco called through the door “It’s a little book”

“That’s good. Reading will keep the mind sharp. Like a horn” Star replies monotone

“It's in Mewnian writing. Oh, wait, here's English. "Chapter one. Mom's a poop head." Marco began.

“Mom’s a…. Marco no no no no!” Star says, beginning to panic.

“Hang on Star just give me a sec” He started to skip ahead in the journal, ignoring the increasingly panicked Star pleading outside the door. The secret had to have some connection, oblique as it may be, to her magic. It was why he was in here, right? Then he saw it “Chapter eleven, My thoughts on Marco” he read aloud. But before he could uncover anything, there was a flash of magic from outside the door and it swung open causing Marco to fall backward. 

“I did it!” Star cheered as she landed on the ground “I dipped, I dipped, I dipped, Marco! I'm not a skimmer. I dipped!” She continued as she hopped over to Marco, snatching the journal from his hands before bonking him on the head with it “Sorry, but don’t read my journal” She scolded. Just then the spellbook rolled itself from the closet, startling the two teens. The book swung open to reveal the wand and Glossaryck.

“Well this thing sure is strange” he commented, patting the wand “But give it a whirl” The wand flies up and into Star’s hand. Channeling her magic, she activates the wand. Which erupts in an explosion of red goo, conjuring a new, smaller tower next Stars.

“I’m gonna go put on some pants” Marco excused himself, leaving Star there dumbfounded.

“I call dibs on the new tower!” Glossaryck calls, exhaling a red cloud.

\-------------  
Later that evening Marco laid in his bed, completely lost in his own thoughts “Chapter eleven” he spoke softly for the millionth time. His eyes began to flutter, sleep coming for him early. Only it wasn’t sleep.

Once again, Marco found himself in a mist shrouded Echo Creek. Craning his head upwards, he greeted the Blood Moon “Hey. I take it you know what she wrote in that journal?”

“~Of course I do. Are you really asking me to tell you?”

“I.. Yes?..No?” Marco felt more confused than ever “I just wish I knew how she felt” He looked down at his feet “it’s just I feel like such a creep because of all this” if the blood moon could raise an eyebrow, they would’ve at this statement “I snuck into the blood moon ball and stole that dance from Star. She didn’t even know it was me and now her magic is freaking out and it’s all my fault and she…”

“~Marco.” The Moon interrupted sternly, causing Marco to look back up “I know it’s in your nature to worry about these kind of things, but stop. Take a deep breath. Good?” Marco nodded in response “Now listen, you’re beating yourself up about this and you shouldn’t. The problem is something that is on both of you. Something that can only be solved together. Your worries, your questions, her magic. All of it has one very simple solution.”

“R-really?” Marco asked hopefully “What do we need to do?”

“~Talk.”

\-------------  
Outside of an intimidating castle on Mewni, a large egg begins to shake. Cracking open, a small kappa-like man emerges from the egg. Observing his surroundings, Ludo is absolutely livid. Pulling the lower eggshell up to function as pants, he saunters back to his castle. He pounds angrily on the locked door, threatening whatever fool locked him out of his castle. The door was opened by one Yvgeny Bulgolyubov, Buff Frog. He glared down at Ludo and in his thick russian accent told him “You should not be here”

“WHAT!?” Ludo yelled “THIS IS MY CASTLE! NOW MOVE..” his screaming was interrupted by Yvgeny speaking again.

“No. It’s our castle now. Me and other monsters talk, we don’t work for you no more. Now be quiet, you will wake tadpoles” he capped off his statement off by slamming the door in Ludo’s face. Ludo stormed off, cursing the names of his minions. Calling them traitors and worse. Eventually he ran out of breath and sat down to rest on a dead log.

“I can’t believe it. I’ve failed. Completely.” Ludo said to himself, staring at his hands.

“Not quite completely.” A distorted voice spoke from nearby.

“Wha? Who’s there? I’m warning you!” Ludo jumped down and tried to look tough.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you” The source of the voice emerged from the tree line. It was tall, taller than Marco in his Warlock form. Its body was bright teal and incredibly muscular. Orange spider legs wrapped around its chest resembling armour and it wore orange boots with teal spider charms hanging from their fronts. It’s forearms was marked with a number of orange ridges which faded to teal. Eight glowing orange eyes, arranged in two rows of four, decorated its face and a number of horns were arranged upon its head one pair of which curved a twisted in front of it face to resemble a pair of chelicerae.

“What… what are you?” Ludo asked the stranger.

“I am called Tsuchigumo. I’m a bit of multiversal course correction” Tsuchigumo put a bit of emphasis on that last bit before laughing loudly “I hear you have a wizard.. Or should I say warlock problem?” It leaned over, looking Ludo in the eyes from only a few inches away.

“I..uh..” Ludo thought for a moment “The boy! Yes, um.. Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m here to help” The spider monster said cheerfully, returning to a fully standing pose “I’ll need you to come with me.”

“Um...Alright!” Ludo found his mood switching around. Something told him that he could trust this… thing. Tsuchigumo gestured for Ludo to follow and together they set off towards some unknown destination.

\-------------  
Marco and Star find themselves sitting outside of their school’s guidance counselor's office. Everybody before them had been told exactly what they wanted to hear, which only served to enhance Marco’s already positive mood. Upon waking today he found a new ring. He hadn’t a clue where it came from, but that didn’t seem important right now. “Wow” Marco commented “Everyone’s getting awesome careers”

“I can’t wait to find out what my future holds!” Star laughs, half excitedly half nervously as she bounced into the office.

“Star Butterfly” Mr.Candle, the counselor, greets her “Please sit”

“Okay!” She cheers, riding a wheeled office chair across the room to his desk.

“Help yourself to some candy” he gestures towards a kitschy candy bowl of a shifty eyed cat which held the bowl itself. 

“No. Thank. You.” Star replied in time with the cat’s eyes “ I'm just really excited to have my fortune told. How do you do it? Read palms? Converse with the dead? Examine head lumps?”

“Nope” he states, retrieving a folder from his desk “Just normal guidance counselor stuff. Have you given much thought to your future?” He asks, paging through the file.

“Totally. When I grow up, I wanna raise warnicorns!” Star then summoned a warnicorn which she rode on as it reared and neighed.

“Well, that seems like a fun hobby but you might not have much time for hobbies as the queen of Mewni.” Mr.Candle responded calmly. Star, and her warnicorn, both calmed down and stared at the man before she dispelled the warnicorn and landed back in the seat. “I may not know your fortune, but your future is set in stone.” He put strange emphasis on the words fortune and future, they sounded.. wrong.

“Stone?” Star questioned sadly.

“Are you dating anyone?” Mr. Candle asks abruptly.

“What?” Now Star was confused “ummm, no?”

“What about that Marco boy? Got a secret crush on him?”

“He's my roommate. We're just friends.” Star spits her words at him.

“Yeah, that's weird to date your roommate. Maybe someone else then. It's never too early to start searching for the future king of Mewni.”

“Maybe” Star responds melancholically

“Cheer up Star. Or should I say, Your Majesty?” Mr. Candle finishes, offering Star a piece of candy.

“Hmm.” Star moans, dejectedly and exits the office. 

“So how’d it go?” Marco stood up, but Star just walked past him in silence “Or we can catch up later.” Something wasn’t right. Many things weren’t right, but that was not the point. He had started paying more attention after his last visit with the Blood Moon, and now that Marco could see how terrible Star was feeling he felt a bit of anger welling up. It had to be something the counselor said. Stomping into the office Mr. Candle greets him similarly to Star.

“Mr. Diaz” he began warmly “I’ve been very anxious to speak to you.”

“Seen my test scores, have you?” Marco was confident in his words, though wary of the man. 

“Indeed”

\-------------  
Tsuchigumo parted the tree branches in front of them revealing a Stonehenge-like structure with Mewmans chained to the pillars, hanging limply. “What’s this?” Ludo asked in wonder as he wandered towards the altar at the center of it all.

“Preparations for the black sabbath, to bring more of my brethren into this world” Tsuchigumo followed behind, gesticulating wildly. “I would ask you to take part, so that you may become a wizard and aid us” he added while retrieving a strange flute-sword from beneath the altar.

“A wizard?” Ludo asked excitedly “Do I get my own wand?”

“Not quite, but I assure you. One way or another the sabbath will grant you the ability to use magic” The spider man said in a sly tone.

“Hmmm, I guess. I really wanted a wand though” Ludo mused. “What do I have to do?”

“Just sit there” Tsuchigumo directed Ludo to a stone bench within the circle. Once Ludo was seated, the teal monster retrieved one of the chained mewmans and attached them to the altar. The jostling awoke the weakened young woman, who began to struggle and plead weakly. Tsuchigumo only laughed “Now we can begin”

\-------------  
“Garbage Island⁈ What's the use of taking honors classes if it gets you sent to the middle of nowhere?” Marco was now completely angry, though more for his own sake.

“So don’t go” Star responds, placing her books into her locker “At least you have a choice. Apparently, the only thing in my future is being queen.”

“Oh man. I’d love to be…” Marco began, but then he had a thought. “Why are you so down on being queen, Star? I mean, I know you aren’t really one for responsibility but you’ll be the one in charge. Wouldn’t you like that?” The Moon did say to talk about their problems. Not technically this problem, but it was a start. Star just groaned in response, sliding against her locker.

“I don’t want to talk about this right now Marco” She looked miserable. Marco stared at her, trying to say something else. He was distracted by Mr. Candle walking by and going into the nearby restroom.

“Head Janitor. Garbage Island” Marco remarks to himself, following him into the restroom. 

\-------------  
“Taijo pa zagishi, padagidaj bo jibasa bi babuseragu!” Tsuchigumo chanted, raising his flute-sword high above the restrained mewman on the altar. Ludo watched with rapt attention, listening to the strange words said by the spider. The sky above them grew dark and he continued “Zezudo ga zujo gusu, Fantomu ga dajigagasu jo bi gusu!” turning his blade downward he drove it into the heart of the mewman. Purple smoke spewed from the wound, wrapping around the other captives, who begin to squirm and wail in pain before literally cracking. Shattering, a number of frightening monsters replaced them. When the smoke reached Ludo it blanketed him, completely hiding him from sight.

When the sun returned, Tsuchigumo greeted his newly born brethren “Hail, my phantom brothers! Let us go forth and bring this world to despair!” they all cheered with great enthusiasm, but the sounds they made died down when Ludo emerged “Wow” Tsuchigumo gasped “I honestly didn’t think you would make it”

“I don’t feel any different” Ludo remarked, examining his own body.

“Trust me, you have changed greatly” Tsuchigumo retrieved a hand shaped buckle and two rings from beneath the altar “Welcome to our ranks, emerald wizard” He presents the artefacts and the flute sword to Ludo “Allow your phantom Sobek to guide you”

“Sobek?”

\-------------  
Entering the restroom, Marco is greeted by an explosion of hellish fire from one of the stalls. His curiosity piqued, he climbed up and peered over the side of the stall where he found Mr. Candle speaking into the toilet. “All right sir, phase one is complete. What's next? Sir, are you there?” The swirling water changed to reveal a furious Tom Lucitor.

“You idiot! You forgot the most important part. Me!” Tom hissed at his accomplice.

“I got confirmation. Starco is completely platonic.” Mr. Candle assured Tom.

“Make sure there's no possibility of them ever being a thing.” Tom commanded. First, when Mr. Candle upset Star, he was peeved. Then after he was old his supposed career he was angry. Now, he was pissed. An boy did it show, his red moon cheek marks revealing themselves.

“Absolutely sir”

“Also, stop offering everyone candy. You're gonna blow my cover. I want her back!”

\-------------  
Mr. Candle entered his office, whistling to himself. “Hey Mr. Candle” Marco greeted him softly. It was still enough to set the man on edge though.

“Oh hello Marco”

“I appreciate all your guidance with Garbage Island and all, but I'm gonna pass” Marco said from across the desk, crumpling and tossing the garbage island flyer but missing the trash can “Actually, I was just thinking I might be king of Mewni.” Something about saying it, he could feel tension leave his body.

“What?” Mr.Candle replied, sputtering his coffee.

“The thing is, Star and I have recently become smooch buddies. On the lips.” Marco lied smoothly.

“Even if that's true kid, you shouldn't say that out loud.” Mr. Candle responded in almost a whisper, clearly worried.

“Yeah, we've been trying all styles. German, Italian, Polynesian. My tonsils are so tired, I can't feel my teeth.” The more he said it, the more it felt right. He could feel his magic flowing through his body. The candy bowl then burst into a glowering, growling Tom. “Haha! Busted!” Marco pointed a Mr.Candle “I knew you weren't a guidance counselor.” Tom then grabbed Marco.

\-------------  
“Stop it” Marco cried out, attached to a spinning wheel in Tom’s lair “I knew you were listening. I never made out with Star.” He admitted. Tom snapped his fingers, halting the wheel. “I just said that to get your goat.” 

“You lied to me?” Tom said coarsely

“Well, you lied to Star. You made her think all she's good for is being queen.” Marco accused. Tom took a few steps away, calming down. “Dude just take me home.” Tom gestured and Marco was released from the wheel, landing in a bucket of water. 

“I can't do that; you know too much. Now I gotta destroy you.” Tom stared down Marco.

"What⁈ That's not fair!” Marco complained while exiting the bucket.

“All right, fine. Battle to the death. I win, you die.”

“But what do I get if I win?” Marco asked

“ It's not gonna happen.” Tom laughed “So, yeah, ask for whatever you want.”

“If I win you gotta tell Star the truth.” Marco had just remembered he had his scissors ring, but you do tend to forget things when being spun on a giant wheel.

“Fine. Pick your weapon. Dueling battle axes? Rhino fiend joust? Pear grenades of anguish?” As Tom listed off the challenges he summoned each, one at a time. Marco pointed across the room.

“What about ping pong?” He queried

“That’s cool” Tom shrugged. A pair of demons arrive to provide paddles and balls to them. 

“Your weapon of choice, my liege.” One says. Marco retrieves a paddle and ball.

“I oughta warn you, I'm not only a karate master, I'm also good at ball sports.” He serves the ball to Tom, who returns it with enough force to shatter Marco’s paddle and damage his hand. “Ow!”

“Point, Master Tom” a demon states. Marco reaches for another paddle, then hesitates. He looks at Tom, then smiles.

“Hey Tom, there’s something I always wanted to try” Marco unzips his hoodie to reveal his buckle. Retrieving his newly found ring, Marco places it on his left hand and runs it across the buckle.

“Nunchaku, Now!” and sure enough, a set of nunchaku appear out of a magical sigil. The handles are made of a red crystalline material with silver caps, connected by a silver chain. Marco serves the next ball using them, much to Tom’s surprise. And when Tom returns the ball, Marco manages to use his nunchaku to keep the ball going and after a while...

“Point, Marco Diaz” the demon called out. Now Tom was pissed off again and the match turned into a fierce battle. 

“Since when have you been this powerful?” Tom panted

“A while…” Marco responded, likewise becoming exhausted from their exchange. 

“You know...You’re never going to win right?” right as Tom said that, Marco’s cheek marks appeared and he sent the ball right past tom.

“Game point, Marco Diaz” the demon announced.

“No, you’ll never win. Star isn’t a prize you can win by defeating me, and if you think that then you don’t deserve her. You can't make Star be your girlfriend unless she wants to, no matter what scheme you cook up.” Marco looked down his nose at the pouting demon prince.

\-------------  
Arriving in a burst of flame, Marco steps out of the demon carrier. “Star, we need to talk…” in front of him resembled Star but about ten times as punk, sharpening an ax on a grindstone. “Whoah”

“Oh hey Marco. Did you know that if you cut off a mermaid's tail, you can never be queen? It's all in the guide book.” Star spoke in a slightly disturbed manner. 

“Star, you don’t have to do that”

“Oh thank goodness” Star cries, dropping her ax. “I'm so sorry Tiffany; I never wanted to hurt you.” She speaks to a mermaid in her fish tank. Turning around she notices someone else has arrived “Tom? What’s going on?” 

“I have something I need to confess.” Tom started “I used Mr. Candle to try to get back together with you, and then Marco beat me. He showed me I was wrong. All I wanted was to get you back, but I never stopped to consider what you wanted. I'm sorry.” Star smiles, and then punches Tom hard in the chest.

“You tricked me, but it doesn't even make a difference. I'm still gonna be queen.” She walked away from the two boys dejectedly. 

“Yeah, but that doesn't sound like a bad thing because you're gonna run Mewni your way, no matter how destructive.” Marco tells Star warmly. 

“That’s true” Star responds, conjuring a warnicorn before her and Marco hug. 

“Well, I should go. by the way, I like your hair.” Tom comments forlornly as he exits the house. 

“So you guys were hanging out” Star asks

“Uh, kinda… Star, can we talk about something…”

“Oh, Janna left some things for you in your room”

“Left some… WHAT!?” Marco fled the room in a panic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsuchigumo's spell is written in the Grongi tongue from Kamen Rider Kuuga. More or less.


	6. Sorcerer's Apprentice

Marco rushes into his bedroom, scanning the room frantically for whatever it is Janna had planted in there. His eyes lock onto his bed, something clearly hidden beneath the blankets. Throwing off the covers, Marco’s jaw drops a what he sees. A crystal ball and two magic rings neatly laid out on top of an elegant purple throw pillow, a small post-it note attached to the crystal ball reading “Janna” with a small heart drawn next to her name. “No way” he says, snatching up and examining the rings. One showed criss-crossed chains, and the other a dragon-like silhouette. Retrieving his ring chest, he inserts them into empty slots before turning his attention back to the crystal ball. He pulls off the note and looks it over with a sigh, placing the note in his pocket.

“Hey Marco!” Star calls out, entering his bedroom “So what did she… is that a crystal ball?” she bounds over to the bed and begins fiddling with the orb.

“Star, be careful.” Marco warns, not wanting it to break before he figures out why it’s here.

“Pfff, don’t worry. I’m always careful” Star waves her hand dismissively, dropping it in the process. The crystal ball then rolls across the floor to Marco’s feet. Lifting it up, he shoots Star a disapproving glare before examining it more closely. As he does an image swirls into view, showing someone running at a breakneck pace. Star leans in close “Ooh, how did you make it do that?”

“I don’t know.. But isn’t that?” Marco didn’t get to finish his sentence before the girl shown in the crystal ball, their clumsy classmate Sabrina, falls flat on her face. As the two continue to watch, a strange monster enters the scene in the crystal. “Star!”

“Uh, what?”

“We gotta go help her!” Marco said, tossing the crystal ball back onto his bed “Come on” He grabbed Star’s hand and dragged her out of the house. He continued to hold on to her hand tight as they ran as fast as possible, and soon enough they find themselves in an alley near the strip mall. There they hear Sabrina sobbing behind one of the dumpsters as the monster walks slowly towards her.

The monster was bulky, with a rotund gut. It’s body was lavender and its limbs were covered in shaggy beige fur. Around its neck was a similarly beige mane and its head was topped with a pair of bovine horns. It had no visible eyes. It turned slowly towards the new arrivals with a huff “Of course. Welcome, Warlock.”

“Who are you?” Marco called out

“The phantom Bugbear. Now if you don’t mind,” it gestured vaguely before turning back to Sabrina’s hiding place “I have work to do”

“I do. I do mind” Marco said, readying his transformation.

“WARLOCK, NOW!” The newly transformed Marco turned to Star, the two nodding at each other and beginning to surround the phantom.

“As much as I would love to play with you two, I’m in a bit of a rush. How about you keep yourselves busy with these!” he called out, throwing a handful of small stones which grew into strange stone creatures. The creatures moved methodically but slightly twitchy as they spread out.

“Bacon Kitty Hawaiian Nightmare!” Star yelled, firing a blast at her enemies. Marco dashed from one target to another, striking them unarmed. Hammer punch, karate chop, side kick. One by one the grey foot soldiers were shattering. Bugbear meanwhile had reached the dumpster and with a chuckle hurled it backward at Star, revealing Sabrina in the process. 

“Defend, Now!” Marco quickly used his shield ring which conjured a barrier of red crystal between Star and the dumpster, as Star was too focused on offense to react fast enough. 

“Star! Stop him!” Marco called out as he returned to battering the lesser targets.

“Uh, right! Flying Pig Blast!” a torrent of winged pigs shot out at Bugbear, knocking him away. Star ran up to Sabrina “Are you alright?” Sabrina just shook her head. Star turned to Marco “What do I do?”

“Just get her out of here!” Marco panted, struggling with a spear wielding minion.

“Right!” Star lifted Sabrina on her back and started to run off.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the phantom said returning to his feet “You don’t want to leave before playing with me!!” He roared, the sheer volume of which shook their surroundings. Giggling, he then bull rushed the two girls.

“Watch out” Marco dashed in front of the two girls before activating defend again. Bouncing off the crystal, Bugbear stumbled back as his minions gathered around him.

“I see my ghouls aren’t quite up to the job of snuffing out your life, Warlock. It doesn’t matter though, you three won’t escape us” Bugbear taunted.

“Wanna bet?” Marco replied, readying one of his new rings.

“Chain, Now!” Six chains snaked out from magic sigils and wrapped around the phantom and his ghouls. They struggled against their bindings, but to no avail. Marco swaps his ring again before activating his next spell “Punch Strike, Now!” Marco raised his right fist, red energy gathering around it as an illusory blood moon surrounded him. He leaped forward striking Bugbear square in the chest and somehow passing through him. After a short delay, both the phantom and his ghouls burst violently in a crimson explosion.

\-------------  
It was getting late, especially after they had dropped off Sabrina, but there was something important that had to be done. So Marco and Star found themselves knocking on Janna’s door. After a good thirty seconds of waiting, Janna eventually opened the door. “Oh hey Diaz, enjoying my gifts?”

“I… yes” Marco admitted “But I wanted to ask where you got them?”

“Oh I made them.”

“REALLY?” Star asked, overly enthusiastic. 

“Yeah” Janna replied “Come on, I’ll show you.” She led them through the house to her bedroom, where a formerly disorganized corner had been cleared out and made into a jeweler's workshop. “So, I was at the place where I normally buy my magic crystals when I heard a few them talking to me. At first I thought I was going crazy.”

“They were talking to you?” Marco asked

“Mhm. They were telling me what spells they wanted to be. So I decided to go for it.”

“That… is hardly the craziest thing I’ve heard. Screw it. So magic rocks asked you to make them into spells for me?”

“Basically. Here, listen” She produced a large blue crystal, about the size and shape of an egg. Marco and Star leaned in towards it.

“I don’t hear anything” they responded in unison.

“Huh” Janna shrugged “I guess I’m just special. Do you know what this means?”

“That you’re going to charge me next time?” Marco asked

“Really Diaz? I didn’t know you thought so lowly of me” She said, feigning feeling hurt. Marco just stared at her and crossed his arms. “If I really wanted your money, you know I would just take it. Nah, I have better uses for these skills” She explained slyly.

“Such as?” Marco raised an eyebrow

“I think I’ll keep it as a surprise for now” She smirked

“Janna, magic can be dangerous, right Star?” Marco turned to the princess

“Well… I guess, sometimes” Star started coyly, earning an exasperated sigh from the boy.

“Just, promise me you’ll be careful” He gave Janna a stern look.

“Sure thing, safe kid” Janna rolled her eyes. Even with powers, Marco was still himself.

\-------------  
Marco was laying in bed, sleep not coming even though it was well past midnight. Despite how physically tire he was, his mind was still running a mile a minute. That creature he fought called itself a phantom, just like the one within him. With a groan he threw off his blankets and got out of bed. Sitting in the center of is room cross legged, Marco did his best to focus. Breath deep, empty the mind, reach down and find is inner self.

He found it, years of martial discipline and listening to Janna talk about spiritualism were really beginning to pay off. Opening his eyes to a fog shrouded Echo Creek. “Blood Moon, we need to talk” He shouted to the skies.

“~Of course. Always here on business, never just to visit” the Blood Moon taunted Marco sarcastically.

“This is important, please…” Marco took a deep breath “What are phantoms? What are you, really?”

“~That is... complex, this is technically foreign magic.” the Blood Moon began.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“~Relax, I’m getting there. If you want to know then don’t interrupt me.” the Blood Moon huffed, causing the fog to swirl violently. “As I was saying. Foreign magic. On this Earth, humans lack innate magical potential. On another there are special humans called Gates, each containing a phantom in their Underworld. Normally in order to use the power of an inner phantom, the Gate must overcome their utmost despair. If they fail, the phantom takes over. Since I’m not a real phantom, you don’t have that problem.”

“What do you mean “not a real phantom”?”

“~You acquired magical potential when you and Star were bonded under my light and someone, or something, from the other Earth used that to make you into an artificial Gate. Which appears to have had the side effect of creating Gates, Phantoms, Magic Stones and those who can hear their voices.”

“So that phantom I fought…”

“~Was a Gate who died because they could not tame their inner phantom. Undoubtedly he was targeting that girl because she is now a Gate, trying to create another phantom from her”

“So she’s still in danger?”

“~Yes, and she will continue to be unless she becomes a wizard, unlikely to say the least, or you acquire the engage spell ring and destroy her inner phantom from within her underworld.”

“Is… is it all my fault?”

“~No Marco. I bet the one who created you didn’t even realize this was a potential outcome. But you are the one with the power to stop it”

\-------------  
Marco was feeling surprisingly refreshed the next morning as he and Star walked to school. Maybe it was the magic, that would go a long way in explaining how Star was always exploding with energy. Speaking of the princess, she was absolutely beaming today, going on and on about fighting Bugbear and how cool Marco is as Warlock and Janna making the magic rings. Honestly the whole prospect of earth magic excited her. Marco for his part had tuned her out. Not that he wasn’t interested in what she was saying, more that he was just enamored with how cute she looked while ranting about their magics. He still hadn’t told her the whole truth of it, but more and more he knew he had to. Wanted to, to tell her how wonderful she was. 

Arriving at school for the day Marco stood at his locker getting everything in order, thinking about how to approach the three things he needed done. Talking to Janna about the “engage” ring would be simple, but she would no doubt be insufferable about him asking for help. Keeping an eye on Sabrina would also be easy enough, plus he brought his crystal ball which should warn him if a phantom showed up. The hard one was confessing to Star. Magic and fighting is easy, people are not. He still wasn’t even sure of his own feelings, the whole idea of it made him anxious to no end. But he kept finding himself staring at her when she was around and thinking about her when she was not. Plus if their magics are connected, she deserves to know. Closing his locker he turned to Star “Ready for class?”

“I guess” Star groaned, earning a laugh from Marco. As they walked away, he never even realized he missed his morning greeting with Jackie.

\-------------  
Lunch time had rolled around without incident, giving Marco time to formulate his plan of attack against Janna. Unfortunately, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. “Hey Diaz, seem a little distracted today.” She greeted him as she took a seat at the lunch table.

“Umm, I guess. I got a lot on my plate. Actually I needed to talk to you about something.” he was caught off guard by her remark, but he was not going to let her take control of this conversation. It was too important for her shenanigans.

“Yeah, you must. Imagine my surprise when Jackie said you missed greeting her this morning.” Janna’s words hit Marco like a bullet. He was completely dumbfounded, that he of all people would mess up like that. The fact that she noticed made it infinitely worse. Alfonzo, Ferguson and Star all turned to stare at Marco, his expression frozen in shock. Janna was grinning wickedly “I never thought I’d see the day, so you finally over her? You couldn’t have forgotten, no matter how busy right? You, Marco Diaz, would never forget something like that. But that is pretty cold, just up and stopping like that. It’s like you never really liked her.” Janna was having a field day, watching Marco’s pained expression as the cogs in his brain ground to a halt. It was just one small mistake, but she knew that in Marco’s brain it was tantamount to killing a puppy. 

“It’s not like that” he said weakly, staring downward. True, he was up to his neck in problems but that wasn’t an excuse. He couldn’t believe he forgot, nor that she noticed. Or was Janna just messing with him on that second part. He could buy that. And what about everything with Star? I would be his luck that Jackie would finally notice him back after he started showing interest in another girl. Was he showing interest… Marco’s mind went on and on in circles as he continued to stare at the ground. The others went back to eating their lunch, although Star would give him a concerned glance every now and then.

\-------------  
Marco moped is way through the rest of the day. It was amazing how something so small could ruin someone’s day. The only real conclusion he came to was how thankful he was that the Blood Moon didn’t chime in at all. Star was waiting for him outside, greeting him cheerily “Hey Marco!”

“Hey Star” his words much more dour. He sighed before looking at Star, his expression softening. “Let’s just go home” As the two fell into step and started making their way from the school, a scream emanated from Marco’s bag. He rushed to remove the crystal ball from his bag, the orb focused on Sabrina while the rest of the school’s cheer squad scattered in fear. He looked at Star, the two nodding in silent agreement. They rushed at a breakneck pace back to the school’s gym, passing several fleeing cheerleaders. “Stop right there!” Marco yelled as he burst through the doors, pointing at the creature.

The Phantom was muscular and bulky, with dark olive green flesh. It’s back was covered in long, shaggy forest green “tentacles”. It’s head, neck and tail were scaled like a snake and it ad tortoise like feet. It turned towards Marco and Star for a moment before exhaling a green mist which began to eat at the surroundings. 

“Super Geyser Windstorm!” Star reacted quickly, her spell pushing the mist away but also spreading it out to cause widespread light damage to the nearby walls. She wore a strained smile and shrugged at Marco who was readying his rings.

“WARLOCK, NOW!” announced his belt as he transformed. The creature grimaced at him while Sabrina hid beneath the bleachers. 

“I don’t know what you’re supposed be, Phantom. But you are not going to kill anybody on my watch!” Marco challenged the creature before quickly closing the distance between them. The phantom’s tentacles swung forward before hardening and firing a barrage of quills at Marco, who thankfully had readied defend and activated it at nearly the last second.

“Raspberry Ribbon Lasso” Star cast, a whip like projection firing from the wand and grabbing Sabrina before reeling her in and away from the phantom. Turning to face Star, the monster receives a hard side kick to the face from Marco. Knocked off balance Star combos off of Marco “Starlight Foot Smash” the hind section of a horse bursting from the round to kick the phantom again. Growling, the creature looks skyward before releasing a massive cloud of acid. Star looks at Marco worriedly.

“Don’t worry, I think I know how to handle this.” Marco stated as quickly as possible while readying his drill ring.

“Drill, Now” The belt called out as Marco lept into the air, his body quickly spinning and emanating a red wind which dispersed the acid fog. However the Phantom had disappeared. Cancelling his transformation he walked over to Star and Sabrina. 

“Hey Sabrina. I’m sorry this happened again. I promise it’ll stop.” He spoke with great sincerity as he helped her to her feet. She looked between him and Star before running off.

\-------------  
His earlier problems now out of mind, Marco found himself with Star at Janna’s door again. Knocking, he waited impatiently for her to come to the door. When she finally opened it Marco spoke first “We have a problem and I need your help to it”

“Bold of you to assume I’d help. What’s in it for me, Diaz?” Janna replied in her typically jovial tone.

“People are going to die Janna, let us in” He spoke authoritatively, both Star and Janna taken aback by his behaviour.

“Aren’t you just full of surprises. All sunshine and rainbows today. Huh?” Janna laughed before heading back inside, Marco and Star following behind. “So what’s the stitch?”

Marco began with a deep breath “Evil phantoms are trying to make more of their kind. I was old I need you to make something called an engage ring to stop them from targeting people”

“Where’d you learn that?” Star was the one who asked, increasingly worried and impressed by Marco. 

“My inner phantom. Their trying to turn others into phantoms by letting their inner phantoms take over.” Marco explained.

“But there weren’t any phantoms before, right? Star asks worriedly, fully believing it may have been something she missed when learning about magic.

“No” the word initially giving Star some relief “Something about my magic has allowed others to manifest” Marco’s words sounding almost sorrowful or apologetic.

“What’s yours look like?” Star’s curiosity piqued. She didn’t know why she hadn’t asked before, but it seemed an obvious one in retrospect. Her spells all had forms inside her wand. She figured it had just slipped her mind, most times it would have come up she was distracted. Either by something else happening or just amazed by Marco’s magic. Marco suddenly felt very uncomfortable, this was neither the time or place for this. Especially not in front of Janna.

“Yeah, what’s your phantom like?” Janna chimed in. He was losing control of the situation and his confidence with it. He had to think quickly. They had since reached Janna’s bedroom and she was thankfully busy sorting through various gemstones.

“It’s Monster Arm. But as a full creature. Looks kinda like a kraken?” Marco fed them the quickest lie he could. Janna wouldn’t be fooled normally, but she was thankfully distracted.

“Then why do you have a moon thing?” Star asked quizzically. She didn’t think he was lying, but she was confused. She hadn’t really put any thought into Marco’s magic despite everything, and know that she was thinking about it something seemed off. 

“Uhh, well I think it’s because I’m a warlock and they just have moon stuff? Like my ring is a moon.” he was stumbling his way through his words. He was honestly just hoping she would drop it before Janna started digging at it. Star was looking slightly puzzled, but only for a moment as Janna screamed causing her to jump. “Janna what is it?” Marco asked concerned.

“I got it!” She cheered “A whole bunch, actually. I’m guessing that might mean you need multiple” She looked at her tools thoughtfully “I should have some ready for you by tomorrow”

“Thanks, Janna. I…” Marco thought long and hard about finishing this thought “I owe you one” He smiled before turning to Star “Now it’s time to go home”

\-------------  
It was Star’s turn to lay awake in bed tonight. “Hey Glossaryck?” She looked over the side of her bed at her spellbook on the floor. The only reply she got was loud snoring. Star sighed. She knew Marco was keeping something about his magic secret. She was not exceptionally clever but even she was able to start putting the clues together. Her wand reacted and changed when exposed to is magic. He had red moon cheek marks and their cheek marks reacted to each other’s magic as well. His visor was a red moon. His finisher created an illusory red moon. There was really only one thing that tied it all together. Tied them together.

The Blood Moon.

\--------------  
The morning had begun awkwardly as both Marco and Star were able to feel a tension between them and tried their best to talk around it. The entire walk to school they were both acutely aware of how close they were. Once there Marco greeted Jackie as per usual and the day carried on as normal. Lunch period had arrived and still the two teenagers were anxious. Janna plopped down at the table, nearly startling them. “Yo Diaz, I got the goods you’re looking for” She announced tossing Marco a brown paper bag. Examining it’s contents Marco found a handful of rings with yellow-orange gems and a strange geometric pattern over them.

“Thanks, Janna” He laughed nervously a little. Janna eyed Marco and Star suspiciously. Something was up. She was still formulating her plan of attack when the silence of the table was broken up by the sound of crying. Marco retrieved his crystal ball from somewhere in his hoodie, its surface showing Sabrina as her skin began to crack and bleed light. His eyes went wide. “We gotta go” He jumped from his seat, Star lagging behind with Janna in tow. They found Sabrina back in the school gym, no phantom in sight.

“Sabrina” Marco jostled her trying to get her attention “Sabrina what happened?”

“Brittney said I’m off the team.” She sniffled “That they don’t need a freak like me bringing problems” she began to sob even harder, causing more of her to crack. Marco retrieved one of the engage rings and activated it on his belt, which only produced a failure noise.

“~Wrong person’s hand” He heard in is head. He removed the ring and placed it on Sabrina’s finger, before placing it against his buckle. 

 

“Engage, Now!” Marco’s cheek marks appeared and instant before he found himself drawn into the light spilling out from the girl, vanishing before Star and Janna’s eyes.

“It seems I’m a little late” An inhuman voice called out, the phantom entering the room “oh well, I can still have fun with you two”

“Woah. What are you?” Janna said excitedly.

“The Peluda phantom. Now despair and perish” He pointed his tentacles at the girls, firing his barrage of quills. 

“Pile Driver Panda Explosion” Star lept in front of Janna, firing numerous exploding Pandas to intercept the needles. “Janna, get Sabrina somewhere safe. Marco’s not the only one who can defeat you losers” She turned back to Peluda and stuck out her tongue at him. 

“But I wanna see you fight the monster!” Janna complained. A second later Peluda snapped his tail, making a hole in the wall next to her. “Never mind, we’re outta here” She gestured a thumb over her shoulder before grabbing and beginning to drag the near comatose Sabrina from the battlefield. 

“Not so fast” Peluda made a move to intercept Janna before being knocked away by Star’s Stardust Daisy Devastation spell.

\-------------  
Marco found himself in a fog shrouded version of Echo Creek Academy. Examining his surroundings he felt uneasy. “WARLOCK, NOW” he transformed and he continued his search. Entering the gym he watched as a spectral Brittney dismissed and insulted Sabrina, kicking her off the team. It was certainly a heartbreaking scene, although his thoughts were interrupted when a massive bronze fist burst through the ceiling. Marco dived out of the way of rubble, looking up to see a massive bronze man. It wore a bronze toga which seemed to be a part of its body, and had a pair of large bronze wings. It all looked mechanical and had visible bolts. It looked directly at him and screeched, stomping down at the Warlock. Dodging again, he took off running trying to formulate a plan.

\------------  
Janna had managed to get Sabrina all the way to the nurse’s office which was thankfully empty. Back in the gym, Star was rather winded. She and Peluda were dodging everything the other was throwing at them. She wasn’t going to take him down with her normal strategy of raw power, she needed some tactics. Some good ol’ fashion subterfuge. “Honeybee Tornado Swarm!” she fired a swarm of bees at the phantom who began to swat them away. “Super Geyser Windstorm, Winterstorm Hyperblow!” she cast in rapid succession, covering the room in ice. This caused the flailing phantom to slip, giving Star the opening she was hoping for. “Thermonuclear Butterfly Blast!” She hit her target dead on, causing him to explode in a cloud of glittery, cotton-candy blue energy.

\-------------  
Marco was having a rough time, he was not prepared to fight a giant of any sort. He was quietly going over his rings in his head, trying to put something together. Just as he evaded another massive fist he managed to put a strategy of his own together. He readied the dragon-like ring. “Drake, Now!” a small plastic model put itself together in front of him, a slot for the ring set in the back. Marco obliged and put the ring in its slot before activating his next ring “Big, Now!” the small animated drake flew through the sigil before flying in front of Marco. It had long horns and grey-green scales.

“I think I’ll call you Nachos” He informed the drake enthusiastically before mounting it. Together they flew up the side of the giant, tight against it zooming through the folds of the toga. Reaching its head Marco activated his nunchaku ring, conjuring them in his hands as he began to cast two more spells in rapid succession.

“Drill, Now! Punch Strike, Now!” He launched himself from Nachos, energy flowing into his crystalline weapons causing them to glow. The thrust them forward in one hand as he began to spin rapidly, using them like a drill bit to pierce his enemy. Exiting the other side, Nachos catches him flying away as the massive phantom collapses and explodes into red energy. Nachos vanishes a second after they land, leaving only the drake ring behind. As he picks it up, Marco feels himself being cast out of Sabrina. In a flash of light he appears in the infirmary in front of Janna, Star and an unconscious Sabrina. He cancels his transformation before turning to a slightly battered Star.

“Star! What happened? He rushed over to her.

“I’m fine. That phantom showed up but he wasn’t that tough” She grinned, her and Marco exchanging looks of contentment. Sabrina began to stir to life.

“Urgh. What’s going on?” she was grasping her head.

“Don’t worry Sabrina, you’re safe now” Marco informed her “don’t let Brittney get you down either. I’m sure she’ll let you back on the team.” He did his best to reassure her. “I think you should take the rest of the day off though” he then thought for a moment “I think I should too”

“Really? You, Marco Diaz, are going to ditch?” Janna said incredulously. 

“I’m too exhausted to care really. Wanna head home with me Star?” He replied.

She acted like she wasn’t sure how she was going to answer before responding “Yes” nodding rapidly. The two headed home together still aware of how close they walked but not due to awkward tension, instead knowing how much they enjoy it.


End file.
